Oscars: Eight on ten for ‘Slumdog Millionaire’

Oscar¨ Winner A.R. Rahman backstage during the live ABC Telecast of the 81st Annual Academy Awards¨ from the Kodak Theatre, in Hollywood, CA Sunday, February 22, 2009.

Hollywood has met Bollywood at the Academy Awards, and the makers of Oscar champ â€œSlumdog Millionaireâ€ hope itâ€™s a sign of future melding between the U.S. dream factory with its counterparts in India and elsewhere in the world.A R Rahman has become the first Indian to win two Oscars for his scintillating music in â€˜Slumdog Millionaireâ€™ which swept the Academy awards winning eight with one going to sound engineer Resul Pookutty. â€˜Slumdog Millionaireâ€™, a rags-to-riches story of a Mumbai slum dweller, who goes on to win INR 20 million in a quiz show, was adjudged the best film. It also fetched Danny Boyle the Best Director award, Simon Beaufoy best Adapted Screenplay and Anthony Dod Mantle the best Cinematography award. The film was also awarded for Best Editing. A beaming 43-year-old Rahman said: “Before coming here I was excited and terrified. The last time I felt that way was when I was getting married. The foot-tapping number ‘Jai ho’, with lyrics by Gulzar, was adjudged the Best Song. â€˜Slumdog Millionaireâ€™, based on Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup’s novel â€˜Q & Aâ€™, came to the 81st Academy Awards ceremony with 10 nominations and failed to win only in the Sound Editing category. Rahman had also received a nomination in the Best Song category for ‘O saya’ in the film. Veteran filmmaker Satyajit Ray was awarded a lifetime achievement Oscar in 1992 and prior to that Bhanu Athaiya won one for costume design in Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi” in 1983. There was more good news as â€˜Smile Pinkiâ€™, the tale of a Uttar Pradesh girl and her fight against the social stigma of a cleft-lip, won the Oscar award for Best Documentary (Short). Directed by Emmy-award winning Megan Mylan, the film was shot in Mirzapur and Varanasi of Uttar Pradesh.

Shimmering gowns of gold and silver; glittering crystal, sequins and beading were the most popular choices for the icons of the movie industry on the most famous fashion runway in the world.